Author: Emily R. Long

I spent a couple hours the other night rocking someone else’s crying baby to sleep. It’s something I do fairly regularly now as part of a new job. Sweet baby smell, aching arms, and that heavy sleeping baby weight in my arms. On the same

Dear Beautiful Mother, I am so sorry for the loss of your sweet baby. I know that the pain and grief and numbness and confusion you are feeling now seem unbearable and massive. Babies aren’t supposed to die. Yet here you are. Here we both

Last weekend I was driving down a stretch of I-81 in Virginia, it was pretty and quiet and I was several hours into a 15-hour drive. It was a nice and quiet respite of solitude after several very social weeks. Until, suddenly, a tangle of

A friend said it to me recently, “My husband and I tend to end up at the bottom of each other’s priority list, but we’ll have more time for each other as a couple when our children are grown and out of the house.” “We’ll

Uncertainty. I’m not much of a fan. Uncertainty. The unknown. Ambiguity. The unexpected. Wishy-washiness. These things make my stomach slightly queasy. I’ve always been a planner and liked to have things laid out before me, but after having experienced the deaths of so many that

Loving my body isn’t an easy thing for me. Not. At. All. See, I have two daughters. They both died before birth. And, although I don’t really talk about it much because I’m not 100% sure, I’m pretty sure I had another very early miscarriage

Everyone is beautiful. Even in our weakest, darkest moments there is beauty in us. Even when all we can see is our warts and flaws and imperfections, we are beautiful. I unfailingly believe that beauty can be found in everything. Yes, everything. Sometimes we have

Most of us have heard them. The 5 Stages of Grief created by Elizabeth Kubler Ross: Denial Bargaining Anger Depression Acceptance The 5 Stages are a lovely idea that package grief up in a nice and neat way. Do this, then this, followed by this,

When I stop and think about it, it befuddles my brain. The 14th year. How could it possibly be that I’m in the midst of living in year number 14 without you? How can it be that I have lived and breathed and cried and

“A woman who opens her heart to love you, when it’s already broken, is braver than any person you’ll meet.” ~ Steven Benson I love this quote. Although I would change it from woman to person, because I believe that anyone who chooses to love